Spyderco Karahawk - Show and Tell

glowbug123 said:
this knife should have reinforcements on the finger ring. even just little bars going across at intervals. Just my opinion .
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Just received my karahawk today. They have to update the ring! I like the thin design and the wave type opening feature. All companies producing folding karambits should spend the money to be able to use the Emerson wave type opener.

As for the ring on the karahawk..........it NEEDS a G-10 backspacer. Standoffs might be ok but my feeling is the ring needs to be beefed up and have a solid backspacer all the way around it. It's flimsy just like the Warren Thomas designed version was and that was the turn off for me concerning that model as well.
 
I've got a Warren Thomas model right here and I don't see anything flimsy about it.

BTW, how about I move this to the Spyderco forum?
Yes, I think I will ...
 
Smaller diameter ring hole, thicker ring, add G10 to go around. Thin bare metal is not a good thing, and reinforcements are a must. Thanks for the pics. I hope Spyderco makes these tweaks because I'm not feeling the love on this one as is.
 
I've had mine for a while now. It collects dust.

Worst spyderco I've used or owned.

Blade does not snap out smoothly, and the rings are very sharp. I tried to sand mine down and it's still sharp.

Matriarch 2 waved cost half as much....
 
I like mine. Sure, it's not perfect but I'm not finding too much to complain about.
The ring though was bugging me so I installed a stand-off. It was the smallest one I could find in my spare parts bin so that dictated where I installed it. Really stiffened it up. Almost no flex now.
I removed the lanyard, just in the way. At some point I'll polish the stand-off.
....and get a better picture.
F1v6R3N.jpg
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I've got a Warren Thomas model right here and I don't see anything flimsy about it.

BTW, how about I move this to the Spyderco forum?
Yes, I think I will ...
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The Warren thomas version had a little thicker/beefier steel but it never felt all that great and obviously wasn't a huge seller. The all steel construction was too heavy and didn't provide enough grip. The sad thing was........it was a great overall design and could have been greatly improved with a few added material features. I would have rather seen them upgrade the old Warren Thomas model to a titanium framelock with G-10 on the non-locking side and add the wave opener. That would have been awesome!

The karahawk could also be improved and hopefully it will be "if" they do another run. My feeling is that when it comes to folding karambits the Emerson combat karambit is still the one everyone else is chasing after. If a few other manufacturers had the "wave opener" my Emerson might not get carried as often.

I think I'm going to find a maker that can make a solid G-10 spacer for my karahawk and see what happens. I think the ring backspacer would be a super improvement for the karahawk.
 
Sal Glesser said:
We're working on making some tweaks as mentioned.

sal
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I carried mine to FL this week. I really think adding a solid lightweight backspacer around the entire ring really would make the biggest difference. The ring just doesn't feel right eventhough it seems strong when you examine it. It's more of a feeling issue. I think it's the super thin exposed liners used to make the ring and the lack of G-10 over the ring area that makes it worse..... although the G-10 handle material is thin as well so I'm not sure making the G-10 handle material cover the entire folder would quite work either unless thicker G-10 is used. Other than that I'm enjoying it. I like the slim nature of the karahawk and it feels good in the hand. I've already contacted someone about making a solid full back-spacer for the ring on mine. Wish I didn't have to send it off for work. I'm interested in seeing the tweaks Spyderco comes up with.
 
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We work with a disributor that's a bit of a Kerambit junky and a knife afi. The changes we'll experiment with first is add a G-10 ring (90%) between the rings, slightly proud and smooth (ring is too sharp for "right feel") and the 2nd will be to add an inner ring and extend the scale to cover the ring. We'll test both and make a change by the next run.

sal
 
Sounds like you are on the right track to make the karahawk much better. Thanks for the update.
 
Hey guys, i am really new in this blade world and i would like an advice, i was thinking on buy one of this karahawk, i found a store that didnt like how its build and is selling the last 2 for 110$, and he also talks about that the knife feels unfinished and that the ring could cause injuries because the edge, after know this, would you pick the karahawk over the 5.11 CUB master 2.0 (my second option)? I also think that 110$ is a really good deal to let it go.

And about mod, what do you think about using something like paracord arround the ring?
 
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I found this picture in a near by forum, it is the property of it's respective owner. But it conveys the changes I described in an earlier post:
user18675_pic15863_1239079402.jpg
 
^^

+1......I read Sal's post about tweaking the Karambit a little. Once the ring is a little more comfortable, ill be first in line to get one.

I keep a ParaMill 2 in my left pocket and my right pocket is waiting for the updated karahawk karambit.

I have been carrying/training with a karambit for the past 10 years and looking forward to Spyderco's newer version.

:thumbup:

Cheers, Battle
 
Hey Sal,

Would any new improvements to the design be compatable to attach to the first run Karahawks?

Mickey
 
Mickey said:
Hey Sal,

Would any new improvements to the design be compatable to attach to the first run Karahawks?

Mickey
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Hi Mickey,

They probably would as we'd only be adding, but you'd have to figure out how to do it yourself. We won't be providing parts. But, we've not yet decided what changes to make. We'll more than likely add a ring on the inside of the scales. Don't know yet if we'll add anything to the outside of the ring. It will also be a while. The knives in process are already too far along. We'll be making some decisons in the next 2 weeks.

sal
 
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